I flick my eyes from one side to the other, turning to keep my field of vision wide. I catch the butt of a spear flying where I had the back of my head and break my knees to rapidly lower my stance. I use a brief lion's step to slide back and to the left, burying my elbow in the lower stomach of the ambusher.

As the peasant drops with a short cry, the rest move forth with their spears extended out and determined expressions. I slide aside to dodge a trio of thrusts and palm a fourth away from my throat.

“I'm honestly not here to pick a fight, one you would lose.” I warn them.

“You think you're the first Noble we've tangled with?” The muddy girl throws out with a fierce tone.

As they move in to turn me into a porcupine, I dodge with a smile blooming on my face. Their defiance and resolution convince me to simply raise my hand in a gesture of surrender.

“I'm not a Noble and, like I said, I don't want to fight.” I proclaim.

What are you doing? Liz grumbles. They're cute, I don't want to bruise their pride. I catch movement on my left side. I turn a bit so the spear lands on my cuirass and doesn't somehow slip past the stubbed leather bands covering the opening for a left arm.

I detect that the spearhead takes a silver hue as it closes in and instantly activate the armor's defensive runic construct. Another three spears are thrust my way to prevent me from dodging the first thrust.

I can't help but praise their tactics, some soldiers I have fought have failed to integrate this. I decide to let the construct land out of curiosity. When it does, the steel of my cuirass experiences some twisting and bending in different directions.

I seize control of the runes and forcefully cut them off from the core of the construct to counter this attack. Interesting. What is it? Some kind of shaping construct combined with a merging one that undermines armor if you let it.

I swipe the other three attacks aside by lowering my arm in a slash and snatch the spear my opponent is still keeping smack against my armor. The man tries to jerk it back so I go along with it.

The peasant, expecting resistance, stumbles back and bit. I slide directly past two thrusts from those on his flank and slip within their group to smack the man in the chest with my helmet, throwing him retching into the ground.

“Alright, this was fun but I'm in a bit of a hurry.” I quip.

The only answer I get is a half-dozen spears thrust at me from various angles. I briefly accelerate my perceptions and lion's step between two of their weapons, dodging by a hair's breadth.

By the time my pursuers catch up to my figure, I've already leaped past a group of their reinforcements, fifty low born armed with harvesting scythes. This very small army at least has commanders wise enough to organize them by weapon type.

As I run I hear a trumpet which likely came from Mirus' army to call for attention so that one of their messengers can cross with a white flag. This means I don't have much longer to delay.

I rush into the town, past several squads resting in their designated ruin or behind old stacks of hay which have seen better days. I use flow to carry myself up a crumbling wall and pause there as the peasants in my surroundings jump to their feet in alert.

I scour the area but find little movement between groups and almost no communication between the sides of the town. I take note that there are only two soldiers dressed in half-decent leather armor headed for the manor.

It seems to support my conclusion that the officers are there but it isn't quite enough yet so I use a burst of kinetic force to launch myself to the west and a gust of hardened air to carry me forth, leaving them in the dust.

I land atop a barrel only to have a squad of peasants armed with threshing flails get off their asses and rush at me. As these things look rather scary, I quickly use my flow to once again bounce off.

After a good five minutes of playing catch and seek, jumping atop random things from weapon racks to a livestock picket to evade my pursuers, I've burnt a good ten portions of energy and start rethinking my choices.

I leap up to a pile of cracked rotting logs that used to be a house and scour the area, spotting the girl from earlier rushing at me with a furious expression which causes the dry mud covering her traits to crack.

“Hey!” I call out while waving my hand. “How is it going?”

She skids to a stop and brings her spear back over her shoulder to throw it. I extend my palm out to tell her to stop because I'm on precarious footing but she rudely launches it without a care.

I sigh because it's on a trajectory to pierce my umbrella and do naught else. I reactivate my perception construct just long enough to snatch the spear out of the air before it damages the oil-cloth.

“You know, I'm really trying very hard not to kill anyone today.” I vent at her as more and more armed peasants gather. “I'm not a very social person and people tend to forget that so they do things, like throwing spears at me, that cause my temper to flare.”

“Surrender, wench!” The girl screams at me. “I'll tear that signet off your finger and make you eat it if you don't!”

“You see.” I continue, outwardly unfazed. “I've four minions who don't really like murder and mayhem but made an effort today to help because they think you people are worth it. I would really, really really really really, rather not have to slaughter my way through the lot of you.”

Frhk, frhk, frhk. I recognize these sounds as made by slingshots, helped by the fact I spot dozens of flat stones whirling at me. It slightly miffs me that they're not listening to a word I've been saying so I use ten portions of my flow make a sphere around me.

When the projectiles touch the barrier, my intent guides the energy to reverse their momentum. Instead of the stones returning to the sender, as I had vaguely expected to happen, they instead fall on those in the back-line of those surrounding me with quite a bit of speed.

It turns out that, since the stones were at the end of their low arcs, they didn't have enough speed left to return to the slingers. Many drop screaming from their broken bones while a few don't utter a sound and just drop.

I expect one or two might die from the blows to the head but consider that I'm not responsible considering they attacked and all I did was counter. I even tried to kind of surrender myself, it was a trick but they didn't know and more importantly didn't agree.

I recover the two portions that weren't consumed and use them to propel myself high up in the air towards a wall from a stone ruin. In flight, I glance around and spot a messenger rushing away from a soldier in Mirus garb carrying a white flag. That's who I'm looking for.

I land on the carved stones but one of them just detaches and I almost drop with it. I slam the spear down to catch myself. The weapon bends but it holds me steady long enough to regain my footing. I turn to the girl who is still running after me.

“Hey, thanks!” I throw out along with the spear.

She dodges to the side and the weapon plants into the dirt. As she recovers it, I leap down to the ground and lion's leap away in the same direction the messenger went.

I avoid groups of pursuers who try to skewer me but, as I catch sight of my target's destination, which is now mine, they manage to surround me in a zone of the town without ruins for me to use as stepping stones.

I pause at a crossroad to observe the man carrying Siegfried's offer for parley enter a wing of the stone manor. I ignore the peasants closing in on me to call to memory the town's layout.

I turn to a street that'll lead to another which passes behind the manor where there should be an exit located at the opposite of the Exemplar. There are only two likely options for Sykus to take upon receiving the message.

Either he flees and runs into me or agrees to the parley which is just as good a time as any to take him aside. As the former will likely occur within the next few minutes, I have no time to waste.

I use another ten portions, bringing me down to ninety in reserve, to fuel my perception construct for two good minutes without trouble since I'm now accelerating my perception of time as much as I can.

Then, I begin sliding past the weapons swung at me. Stop playing and just smack 'em. Watch me, you brute. I seize my short broadsword's handle as I skip over a leg trying to trip me.

Upon landing, I draw with a lion's strike to swipe at a rope connecting a flail's head to the body of the weapon, cutting it keeping the slash going to slice the attacker's hair.

The man turns blank white as he witnesses his own black hair fall in front of his eyes. I easily get past him to spin around a spear and end up face to face with the muddy girl again.

I grin at her as she tries to hurriedly bring her spear back. I flick my sword inside my palm to switch to a backhanded grip and place the blade against her torso, giving me the option to slice up to her throat if I wish.

Her expression turns sickly, and it's possible she soils herself, but to her credit she doesn't hesitate to headbutt my helmet. It causes my head to ring while she staggers out of my reach with a gash on her forehead.

“Good girl!” I happily exclaim. “Nice call, best thing you could do there.”

She throws me a glare as her traits twist from pain. I lion's leap past her and begin dismantling the attacker's courage by toying with them and showing them how easily I could kill them as I make my escape.

Their confidence levels drop like a stone in a well, causing their previously organized squads to fall to disarray which makes it much easier for me to leave before my heart decides to take a break.

I rush down the street and make a turn to the right to get behind the stone manor. As I do, they try to cut through the ruins to cut my path but going through the rubble causes them to lose too much speed to succeed.

As I rush along the street, the manor's backdoor opens and a middle-aged man in a black tunic with an unshaven beard and the hard face of a veteran walks out with a pouch under his arm that looks much like the one the messenger carried. Fuck, I'm pretty sure Sykus is younger than this.

His head snaps to me and his expression turns irritated. Clearly, they were told of me rushing into town but didn't expect I'd still be evading their troops. I quickly make the call not to show off and appear so dangerous I become a problem of more importance than the parley since that would hinder my plan to find Sykus.

“You look important, mind telling, these crazies to, stop trying to kill me?!” I call out with a bright engaging smile as I slow down. The supposedly hard veteran flinches at the sight, hurting my feelings somewhat. “I'm trying, very hard not, to kill anyone here!” I snap at him in frustration.

“Stop and drop that weapon then.” The man warily responds.

“Sure.” I immediately agree.

I skid to a stop and throw the short broadsword aside to stand there as innocently as I can, panting my lungs off to recover from the damn pursuit. The man stares at me so I stare back.

“All of them.” He adds.

“Right.” I blink.

As the peasants move to encircle me, I calmly undo the two belts on which I keep my other two broadswords, two daggers, and my long hunting knife. The girl with a muddy face takes them all away and hangs them on her shoulder.

“Don't lose them, they're expensive.” I tell her.

“You won't need them anymore, Lady.” She replies with a mean tone.

“Again, I'm not a Noble.” I repeat myself with inhuman patience.

I grab my umbrella off my shoulder to ensure they don't try to snatch it and only belatedly realize that the item doesn't exactly scream peasant. I sigh and turn to the veteran who appears rather annoyed to be delayed.

“Who are you and what do you want?” He questions.

“Jessica Freepath, I want to meet Sykus.” I reply.

I notice a small figure crouch next to my pouch and pick it up. I almost skewer the offender with an air-javelin but relax when I notice that the boy in question is snatching my rations for the day with no care for the rolls of paper I've stashed inside.

I feel a prick of pity as the kid instantly hides the food under his dirty tunic as well as a burst of rage towards Sykus for dragging these people into this when not only was he colluding with Nobles before his rebellion but still is while no doubt lying about it.

I suddenly notice that a good half of the peasants are staring with odd expressions while the veteran is wearing a dubious expression and struggling to find his words.

“What? You heard of me?” I ask.

“You're supposed to be the peasant Duchess Lance married?” He questions back.

“We're engaged, not married.” I correct with a wide grin while turning my hand, and the umbrella, to show off the ring with the long lance running around most of it. “I'm surprised you heard of it.”

“We caught the news through a Mirus Noble we captured.” The man says with a frown. “You're supposed to be a pretty flower on her uniform to quell unrest.”

“She doesn't need me, she's popular enough.” I note, a bit confused and slightly insulted.

“Let me see if it's real.” He extends his hand out with the palm up.

“Ha.” I chuckle. “No, that is not going to happen.”

“You either show it or I'm throwing you in the deepest hole we have.” The veteran scowls. Spears are lowered to punctuate his threat.

“Listen, I've already spared more of you than I usually would for attempting to kill me.” I coldly proclaim. “You either take my word for who I am or I'm killing my way out of this and finding Sykus myself.”

The girl with a muddy face immediately tries to stab me, and another behind me does as well which I discover thanks to a flicker of silver. I release a stream of flow and redirect the kinetic force behind their blows.

She loses her hold over the spear which goes flying straight into the belly of the one trying to stab me from behind while that one's weapon almost skewers her but she manages to dodge at the last moment since she reacted as soon as she lost grip on her weapon.

“Arrh!” The ambusher screams.

“You see, none of you are a true threat to me.” I calmly tell them while releasing wave after wave of golden energy.

The peasants hurriedly back off with the veteran as it pours out. There are soon nine waves of ten portions of energy swirling around me with no one around to hold me captive as more than a few tremble with the knowing fear of those who have witnessed what this much flow can do to them.

“If I wanted to, I could begin a slaughter that would cripple your forces and ensure your swift defeat at the hand of Mirus' forces.” I explain with a steady voice.

“What do you want?” The veteran asks with a frightened expression.

“As I mentioned, I came here to meet Sykus.” I repeat with a touch of irritation. “I'm no Noble but there are thousands on Izla Meria who are rather fond of me as you have seen.” I retrieve my energy at once.

“I'm not letting you anywhere near Sir Sykus.” The mud-faced girl growls.

“You're a soldier.” The veteran snaps at her as I was about to quip. “You'll do what you're supposed to and, right now, it's your duty to guard the river so go back!”

“But, sh...” She starts.

“Is coming with me, I don't have time to waste and it's a fact she hasn't done a hundredth of the damage she could have when coming here so git!” The hard man yells at the peasants. To my surprise, they start quickly dispersing.

“Leave my weapons, it would be a pain to track you down later.” I speak up.

The girl glares at me with no intention of doing so but the officer snatches the belts off her shoulder to put them on his, grabbing my pouch as well. He waves at a couple of squads and points them at me.

I shrug as they brandish their spears to make me follow the unshaven man. We go through a couple of streets and arrive near a thicket of trees where the veteran stops.

“Hold her here, I'll be back in a bit with Sir Sykus.” He orders.

I guess, before the veteran even walks off because I'm so smart, that I'm being ditched here while he sneaks away to warn Sykus that things have gotten more complicated.

Told ya, should've smacked 'em. I smile in amusement as I wait patiently. I count the seconds and observe the surroundings to get a good idea of where I am compared to where Sykus will have to flee towards to break the siege to rejoin with his people patrolling the northern hill.